TV Must Change!! Reducing Toxic Sexual Depictions in Pop Media

Whether during “Netflix and Chill” or a debrief after a long day at work, Canadians spend an average of over 30 hours watching both television and movies each week.* While most watch for entertainment purposes, many do not realize the subverted messages that both television shows and movies are conveying. Certain situations that are shown, depict an offense but are often portrayed in a way that makes us forget that it is actually criminal. Rather than normalizing and romanticizing sexual assault and harassment, television shows and movies must alter the way certain characters act to instead condemn actions of a criminal sexual nature.

*Andrew Ryan, “30 hours a week and then some: When did Canada become a nation of TV-watching zombies?”, Globe and Mail (2018 May 11) https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/30-hours-a-week-and-then-some-when-did-canada-become-a-nation-of-tv-watching-zombies/article11558785/ [perma.cc/3BB4-VAL5].